Duty Free items from NZ to Ireland

harveykane

I'm hoping there are some people who have travelled from NZ to Ireland that can help with this one.

I'm wanting to know the best way to get my Duty Free alcohol / tobacco from NZ to Ireland.

We are going from Auckland -> Los Angeles -> London -> Dublin.

Weight/baggage space is a huge issue for us, so the less distance we have to move the duty free items, the better.

When you arrive in NZ from anywhere, you can buy your duty-free goods in Auckland before you clear customs - which is fantastic as you don't need to lug it around and can put it straight into your trolley at the airport, and it doesn't count at all towards your baggage allowance. Is this the same arriving in Dublin? Am I able to buy my duty-free in Dublin?

Obviously I'm not wanting to arrive in Dublin to find out I needed to buy the items outside of the EU.

Otherwise, does anyone have any advice on where the duty-free is likely to be cheapest? If I can't buy it in Dublin, would I be better of getting it in London, Los Angeles, or Auckland?

Thanks in advance,

Harvey.

robinph

I only bought fags on my last trip and got then in NZ. Any alcohol you'd have to buy on your last flight though so either in London or Dublin and you'd need to be keeping your boarding cards for the whole set of flights to prove that you had just come in from outside the EU. You may find a slightly better selection in London, and better prices due to the EUR->GBP exchange rates.

Xavi6

I just got back from Australia yesterday. I flew Perth - Singapore - Paris - Dublin so 4 cities like yourself.

If weight is an issue then do what I did and carry it as hand luggage. I had 4 bottles of spirits, cigarettes, toblerones etc and just stowed it in the overhead.

Be aware that there is apparently a law with alcohol that could feck you around. I went to buy some in Perth and was told that if I did it would be taken off me going from Paris to Dublin. I had to buy it in Singapore in order for it to be ok'd for Dublin. Pain in the arse tbh.

Crumble Froo

not 100% on this... but i don't think you're allowed buy alcohol in london if you're only going to dublin...?

robinph

@ Xavi: I'm surprised you got away with buying in Singapore and it not then being taken off you in Paris.

You only chance of not having any alcohol taken off you is if you are certain that once you get off the plane at your last change that you don't then have to go back through security again. I know that when I flew AirNZ/ BMI back via London each time I got deposited outside of the airside area and so had to go back through again.

Due to the new "security" rules though you are able to buy duty free between London and Dublin, but only if you've started your flight that day from somewhere outside of the EU and have the boarding cards to prove it. Only buy alcohol just prior to boarding you last flight.

Edit: Oh and you can buy alcohol anyway on normal flight between Ireland and the UK, just not at the duty free prices. You cannot buy fags at non-duty free prices though.

Crumble Froo

robinph wrote: »

Due to the new "security" rules though you are able to buy duty free between London and Dublin, but only if you've started your flight that day from somewhere outside of the EU and have the boarding cards to prove it. Only buy alcohol just prior to boarding you last flight.

i wish so much i'd known that before

harveykane

OK, that's great advice everyone.

Sounds like I'm best to buy in London due to the pound being better than the Euro. But if BMI are already giving us grief about our baggage weight / hand luggage, then buying in Dublin should also be ok.

And in either scenario we should hold on to those boarding passses to prove we have fome from outside the EU.

robinph

They only let you have one bag hand luggage, but you can have another one as well if it is a small laptop shoulder bag type which I just discovered before taking my flights. Didn't have the laptop actually in the latop bag though, but gave me a bit more capacity for carrying stuff about.

jdivision

harveykane wrote: »

But if BMI are already giving us grief about our baggage weight / hand luggage, then buying in Dublin should also be ok.

you're not allowed buy it when you land in Dublin. USA is always cheapest anyway I've found.

robinph

jdivision wrote: »

you're not allowed buy it when you land in Dublin. USA is always cheapest anyway I've found.

You can buy in Dublin, but unless your know that your going to be landing at the A gates in Dublin then you'll not get access to the Duty Free areas anyway so it's effectively the same thing as not being able to buy.

You should definitely not buy in the USA though if you still have another connecting flight to make.

harveykane

robinph wrote: »

Due to the new "security" rules though you are able to buy duty free between London and Dublin, but only if you've started your flight that day from somewhere outside of the EU and have the boarding cards to prove it. Only buy alcohol just prior to boarding you last flight

FYI, I have just arrived in Dublin, and got rejected trying to buy both alcohol / tobacco outbound from London. It would seem that I either misunderstood the above advice, or it is incorrect.

The shops at London all explained to me that I can't buy duty-free alcohol from London to Dublin as they are both within the EU. It made no difference whatsoever that I had same-day boarding passes from Los Angeles to show them.

The shops also said that I could/should have purchased duty-free inbound from LA and then stowed it into my checked luggage - this would have been allowed.

They also said that I could/should have bought my tobacco in Los Angeles, and this would not have been confiscated from carry-on luggage, but Alcohol would have been.

This is all a bit complicated really. I'm pretty disappointed I didn't get to buy any duty-free at all, despite having done due research etc before I left home.

Crumble Froo

how are you supposed to stow the alcohol into your checekd luggage? if i remember correctly it's enter airport, check in luggage, show someone your boarding pass and passport, go past that security checkpoint, then you have a duty free shop. at which point your luggage is long gone.

robinph

Now I'm confused then.

Tobbaco you can buy anywhere and carry all the way through mulitple airport with you without any issues. Apart from if you then take a Ryanair type flight where they will count it as an extra carry on bag. All other airlines you will be fine with though.

For alcohol there are several stories I have seen since the new rules came in with people not being able to take the stuff they bought on one flight onto the next one. Including some story about a guy in Munich who hospitalised himself aftter downing a litre of vodka at the security point rather than let them take it off him.

With all airports now you will end up going back through security each time you land before they will let you back on the next plane though. They even did that to me in Hong Kong when we were just getting off the plane to refuel it before we then carried on to NZ. So you cannot buy the liquids until after your last time through security, unless you are NOT booked all the way through with thesame airline or alliance so you have to fetch you bags back each time.

The only thing I can think of is that you were in the Irish only shops area when you tried to buy and they were confused. I think it should be OK in the main shopping area of T1, after security but before the walk down to the Ireland and IoM gates.